While most of the country and international community focuses on Gonaïves, other parts of Haiti are still underwater and numerous communities remain isolated and cut off from the rest of the country.  Once such area is the Nippes Department. Olbert Nicolas, Oxfam's Disaster Risk Reduction Project Officer describes his recent expedition from the water logged Nippes department to Port-au-Prince.

When I got up in that morning, I knew it would not be a typical day. For several days, travel out of Petite Rivière de Nippes - and the entire department for that matter - was virtually impossible. The river in town had breached its banks, destroying large sections of the road leading out of town towards Mirogane. To cross it would be treacherous at best. Leaving at 9:00am I made my way to the river by motorcycle. We crossed on foot, the moto-taxi driver struggling to hold onto the bike. One obstacle down, but so many more on the way.

I eventually made it to Mirogane - the main city in the department, which had also been severely affected by both [Hurricane] Gustav and [tropical storm] Hanna. Here things got interesting.  As I made my way along Route Nationale #2, I began noticing trucks full of produce lined up on the side of the road. These would be full of things such as avocados, bananas, and other fresh produce coming from the South and Grand Anse on their way to be sold in the markets of Port-au-Prince. However, they would not make it to those markets because the bridge on the highway was 1.5 metres underwater. The women, known here as "madames sarahs", who had purchased the merchandise in order to resell it, were clearly distraught, as the fruits and vegetables had already begun to rot.

As I neared the "bridge", or where the bridge should have been, Haitian police officers were posted to prevent vehicles from attempting to cross. A few days earlier, the Haitian government formally closed the highway.

In the days following the closing of the road, a group of entrepreneurs had already organised alternative transportation for foot passengers and small loads; a shuttle-ferry system had been established. For 15 Haitian gourdes (roughly 38 cents), a man carries you on his back/shoulders and puts you in a "chario", a small wooden boat. Once full, two or three men push the boat across the 70-metre stretch of water to the other side of the water, where for another 15 gourdes, another man takes you on his shoulders to dry land.  Here, I was able to get on public transport into Port-au-Prince.

Despite this innovative alternative mode of transportation, the road closure, combined with the extensive damage caused by the storms, will have a great impact on the area. Already isolated in terms of access to basic infrastructure and essential services, the inability to access the area by road means that aid and assistance to those most affected by storms will be slow in coming. There are great public health risks and food security issues that will need to be addressed in the coming days, weeks, and months and access to the area is critical.

To date, the situation remains the same.  Oxfam has deployed an in-depth assessment team to the area and is planning large-scale intervention in water and sanitation.

More from the Oxfam Press Office at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news